Full Service Mail is coming! The USPS® published this federal register to the PRC last week, and while it introduced new requirements, it also announces quite a few good things coming to mailers.

The biggest item in the release is certainly the announcement that Full Service Intelligent Mail® will be required for automation prices starting in January of 2014. The sabres have been rattled on this date before, but this is the official request from the USPS to the regulatory commission. There are some new and interesting benefits and programs mixed in with the announcement of this requirement.

The first, and probably the most significant, new benefit is the Technology Credit for moving to Full Service. This is an interesting program that will provide credits to the postage accounts of mailers for achieving volume levels of Full Service Mail. Links to a couple of presentations from the USPS that can give you some understanding of exactly what is involved have been included in this post.

The next “Valuable Player” in the lineup is Vendor TEM certification. With the required move to Full Service Mail, there are a number of tests and scenarios a mailer must pass to become “Full Service” certified. This testing process has often proven to be time consuming and difficult for the end user. The great news here is the USPS heard the requests and has allowed vendors to test their products before delivery to the customer. Bell and Howell is proud to already be in the program, and is currently certified for a variety of different preparations using the BCC Mail Manager™ products. This will allow the customers using vendor certified software to go from dozens of tests, down to the deposit of just one file for evaluation. This should help you all get your move to Full Service Mailing underway soon!

There are other, smaller goodies the USPS is sending along, such as simplification of the Business Customer Gateway and changes to the way PostalOne!® reports errors and most importantly a way to “Cancel” a job right through the PostalOne! Dashboard.

You may want to take a minute to familiarize yourself with the new USPS incentive programs for 2013 which were posted on October 15, 2012. They can be reviewed here: https://postalpro.usps.com

Remember, this year you must be doing Full Service mail to qualify for the incentives, so time is of the essence!